‘Megalopolis’ review: Francis Ford Coppola’s $120 million, 4-decade passion project is a zero-star, wacko disaster
nypost.comthe likely final movie from the genius director of “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” versus the obvious reality that his new film is a catastrophe.As with every awful movie that wobbles on the stilts of good intentions, you can guess what wins. “Megalopolis,” for all its high-minded ideals, is impossible to like.
To even politely admire this cacophony of concepts takes the willpower of an army.Coppola kicks off with a trumpeted lecture. “Our American republic is not all that different from Old Rome,” narrator Laurence Fishburne declares, adding that we could “fall victim to the insatiable appetite for power of a few men.”Just about every line of “Megalopolis” could be followed by “The defense rests!”The writer-director’s setting is apparently New York — the license plates say Empire State and there are gladiator spectacles at MSG — but it’s instead called New Rome.
The familiar city and the retro movie itself definitely have the soft-focus ickiness of 1990s NYC. Everywhere is loosely Art Deco.
Women wear sheer Halloween togas, and men look like “Guys & Dolls” gamblers headed to a funeral. The detailed aesthetic makes it no less ugly.Gloom and doom Driver plays Cesar, a famous architect and inventor of Megalon, an indestructible element with untapped potential for construction and healthcare.Dustin Hoffman’s Nush Berman succinctly denounces the material during a public meeting over plans for New Rome. “No, no, no!
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